We All Say, 'What a Mind'—100 Best Taylor Swift Quotes That Have Us Enchanted
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One thing's for sure: Taylor Swift the wordsmith is the ultimate 'Mastermind.'
Since her self-titled album days, Taylor Swift has cemented her place as a proven wordsmith who doesn't just know her way around song lyrics (ahem—there's a reason she has an honorary doctorate from NYU in music and songwriting), but as a masterful, wise word-slinger that generates clever, quotable sentences in both her interviews and everyday life too. Anyone who's grown up with the songstress, enduring all the eras of Taylor, knows her inspiring way with words is extremely versatile, and that can be applied to almost any part of life—love, romance, friendship, revenge, grief, self-acceptance, growth and so much more.
Keep reading for the 100 best Taylor Swift quotes from poetic lyrics to relatable interviews.
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100 Best Taylor Swift Quotes
1. "I still think it's important to be polite, but not at all costs. Not when you're being pushed beyond your limits, and not when people are walking all over you. I needed to get to a point where I was ready, able and willing to call out bull---t rather than just smiling my way through it." —Variety
2. "I think songwriting is the ultimate form of being able to make anything that happens in your life productive."
3. "Getting a great idea with song writing is a lot like love. You don’t know why this one is different, but it is. You don’t know why this one is better, but it is. It sticks in your head, and you can’t stop thinking about it.”
4. "No matter what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind."
5. "You feel like you’re being completely pulled into a riptide. So what are you going to do? Splash a lot? Or hold your breath and hope you somehow resurface? And that’s what I did." —Rolling Stone
6. "It’s weird, because in some of the worst times of my career, and reputation, dare I say, I had some of the most beautiful times — in my quiet life that I chose to have. And I had some of the most incredible memories with the friends I now knew cared about me, even if everyone hated me." —Rolling Stone
7. "I want to make the most of this cultural relevance or success or whatever you want to call it, because it's not going to last."
8. "You don't always get all the things in the bag that you selected from the delivery service, that is life. You get what you get, and you should be proud of what you've done with it."
9. "I'd like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy. My ultimate goal is to end up being happy. Most of the time."
10. "The bad stuff was really significant and damaging. But the good stuff will endure. The good lessons — you realize that you can't just show your life to people." —Rolling Stone
11. "I think who you are in school really sticks with you. I don't ever feel like the cool kid at the party, ever. It's like, 'Smile and be nice to everybody, because you were not invited to be here.'"
12. "We don't need to share the same opinions as others, but we need to be respectful."
13. "It's assumed that [women] hate each other. Even if we're smiling and photographed together with our arms around each other, it's assumed there’s a knife in our pocket." —Rolling Stone
14. "Well, I do sleep well at night knowing that I'm right and knowing that in 10 years it will have been a good thing that I spoke about artists' rights to their art, and that we bring up conversations like: Should record deals maybe be for a shorter term, or how are we really helping artists if we're not giving them the first right of refusal to purchase their work if they want to?" —Variety
15. "I'm intimidated by the fear of being average."
16. "Social media can be great, but it can also inundate your brain with images of what you aren't, how you're failing, or who is in a cooler locale than you at any given moment. One thing I do to lessen this weird insecurity laser beam is to turn off comments. Yes, I keep comments off on my posts. That way, I’m showing my friends and fans updates on my life, but I’m training my brain to not need the validation."
17. "Grow a backbone, trust your gut, and know when to strike back. Be like a snake — only bite if someone steps on you." —Elle
18. "A man writing about his feelings from a vulnerable place is brave; a woman writing about her feelings from a vulnerable place is oversharing or whining." —Maxim
19. "There's so much about Dolly Parton that every female artist should look to, whether it's reading her quotes or reading her interviews or going to one of her live shows. She's been such an amazing example to every female songwriter out there." —Billboard
20. "I love having a goal, feeling like I'm on a mission. I love trying to beat what I've done so far." —Marie Claire
21. "I work on accepting my body every day." —Elle
22. "Being fearless isn't being 100 percent not fearful; it's being terrified but you jump anyway."
23. "I've come to a realization that I need to be able to forgive myself for making the wrong choice, trusting the wrong person, or figuratively falling on my face in front of everyone. Step into the daylight and let it go." —Elle
24. "I live for the feeling of standing on a stage and saying, 'I feel this way,' and the crowd responding with ‘We do too!’ And me being like, 'Really?' And they’re like, 'Yes!'" —Variety
25. "I'm a songwriter. Everything affects me." —Vulture
26. "You only have so much room in your life and so much energy to give to those in it. Be discerning. If someone in your life is hurting you, draining you, or causing you pain in a way that feels unresolvable, blocking their number isn't cruel. It’s just a simple setting on your phone that will eliminate drama if you so choose to use it." —Elle
27. "Early on, my manager told me, 'If you want to sell 500,000 records, then go out there and meet 500,000 people.'"
28. "I think the perfection of love is that it's not perfect."
29. "I'm in the news every single day for multiple different reasons. And it can feel, at times, if you let your anxiety get the better of you, like everybody's waiting for you to really mess up – and then you'll be done. If you do something that defines your character to be not what the public thought you were, that's the biggest risk."
30. "Obviously, anytime you’re standing up against or for anything, you’re never going to receive unanimous praise. But that’s what forces you to be brave. And that’s what’s different about the way I live my life now." —Variety
31. "I've come to a realization that I need to be able to forgive myself for making the wrong choice, trusting the wrong person, or figuratively falling on my face in front of everyone. Step into the daylight and let it go." —Elle
32. "Every single one of us has a few months here or there that feel like dark months."
33. "A lot of the best things I ever did creatively were things that I had to really fight — and I mean aggressively fight — to have happen." —Rolling Stone
34. "I think that you can love people without it being the great love."
35. "The bigger your career gets, the more you struggle with the idea that a lot of people see you the same way they see an iPhone or a Starbucks." —Variety
36. "If I did slip up, the entire earth would fall off its axis, and it would entirely be my fault, and I would be put into pop star jail forever and ever."
37. "When we're falling in love or out of it, that's when we most need a song that says how we feel. Yeah, I write a lot of songs about boys. And I'm very happy to do that."
38. "I regret a lot of things all the time. It's like, a daily ritual." —Rolling Stone
39. "When I listen to a song, I don't say, 'Oh my gosh, that vocal line she sang was the best thing I ever heard.' I'm thinking, 'That lyric just moves me. That lyric just said what I feel better than I could say it myself.'"
40. "We're just entertaining people, and it’s supposed to be fun." —Rolling Stone
41. "You should not be blamed for waiting 15 minutes or 15 days or 15 years to report sexual assault or harassment, or for the outcome of what happens to a person after he or she makes the choice to sexually harass or assault you."
42. "I'm happier when I'm making things more often." —Billboard
43. "Being canceled over the internet and almost losing my career gave me an excellent knowledge of wine."
44. "It's pretty intense writing about my own life, my own struggles."
45. "I needed to grow up in many ways. I needed to make boundaries, to figure out what was mine and what was the public's." —Rolling Stone
46. "For too long, the projected opinions of strangers affected how I viewed my relationships. Whether it was the general internet consensus of who would be right for me, or what they thought was 'couples goals' based on a picture I posted on Instagram. That stuff isn’t real. For an approval seeker like me, it was an important lesson for me to learn to have my own value system of what I actually want." —Elle
47. "Since I was 15 years old, if people criticized me for something, I changed it. So you realize you might be this amalgamation of criticisms that were hurled at you, and not an actual person who's made any of these choices themselves. And so I decided I needed to live a quiet life, because a quiet personal life invites no discussion, dissection, and debate." —Rolling Stone
48. "Red is such an interesting color to correlate with emotion, because it's on both ends of the spectrum. On one end you have happiness, falling in love, infatuation with someone, passion, all that. On the other end, you've got obsession, jealousy, danger, fear, anger and frustration. All those emotions — spanning from intense love, intense frustration, jealousy, confusion, all of that — in my mind, all those emotions are red. You know, there's nothing in between. There's nothing beige about any of those feelings, it all comes back to me, and it's red."
49. "You get to a point where it's like you can't really do anything right, and people will pick on you for whatever decisions you make, so I just try and take no notice and get on with my music."
50. "Factoring in millions of people when I'm writing a song is not a good idea. I don't ever do it."
Best Taylor Swift Quotes from Her Lyrics
51. "Breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out / I'll be getting over you my whole life." — "Labyrinth" from Midnights
52. "How can a person know everything at eighteen / But nothin' at twenty-two?" — "Nothing New" from Red (Taylor's Version)
53. "Familiarity breeds contempt / So put mе in the basement / Whеn I want the penthouse of your heart." — "Bejeweled" from Midnights
54. "Remember when I pulled up and said, 'Get in the car,' and then canceled my plans just in case you'd call, back when I was living for the hope of it all." — "August" from Folklore
55. "Spiderboy, king of thieves / Weave your little webs of opacity." — "Karma" from Midnights
56. "I'm a mess, but I'm the mess that you wanted." — "Dancing With Our Hands Tied" from Reputation
57. "You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes" — "Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince" from Lover
58. "Please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere" – "New Year's Day" from Reputation
59. "Barefoot in the kitchen / Sacred new beginnings / That became my religion, listen" – "Cornelia Street" from Lover
60. “Sorry, I can't see facts through all of my fury” – "Happiness" from Evermore
61. "I had a marvelous time ruining everything" – "The Last Great American Dynasty" from Folklore
62. "So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it / You've got no reason to be afraid / You're on your own, kid / Yeah, you can face this" – "You're On Your Own, Kid" from Midnights
63. "Long were the nights when my days once revolved around you / Counting my footsteps / Praying the floor won't fall through, again" — "Dear John" from Speak Now
64. "I never grew up, it's getting so old" – "The Archer" from Lover
65. "You drew stars around my scars but now I’m bleeding" – "Cardigan" from Folklore
66. "You, with your words like knives / And swords and weapons that you use against me / You have knocked me off my feet again / Got me feeling like I'm nothing / You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard / Calling me out when I'm wounded
You, picking on the weaker man" — "Mean" from Speak Now
67. "Gold was the color of the leaves / When I showed you around Centennial Park / Hell was the journey but it brought me heaven" — “Invisible String” from Folklore
68. "Back then we didn't know / We were built to fall apart / We broke the status quo / Then we broke each other's hearts" — "The Very First Night (Taylor's Version)" from Red (Taylor's Version)
69. "It takes everything in me just to get up each day / But it’s wonderful to see that you’re OK"— "Mr. Perfectly Fine (Taylor's Version)" from Fearless (Taylor's Version)
70. "I could build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me" – "New Romantics" from 1989
71. "'Cause it's all over, it's not meant to be / So I'll say words I don't believe" – "Bigger Than the Whole Sky" from Midnights (3am Edition)
72. "I think I've seen this film before / And I didn't like the ending / You're not my homeland anymore / So what am I defending now?" – "Exile" from Folklore
73. "Back then I swore I was gonna marry him someday but I realized some bigger dreams of mine / And Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind" – "Fifteen" from Fearless
74. "Back when you fit in my poems like a perfect rhyme" – "Holy Ground" from Red
75. "My castle crumbled overnight / I brought a knife to a gunfight / They took the crown but it's alright" – "Call It What You Want" from Reputation
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76. "The monsters turned out to be just trees / When the sun came up you were looking at me" – "Out of the Woods" from 1989
77. "And if I get burned, at least we were electrified" – "Dress" from Reputation
78. "From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes" – "You’re On Your Own, Kid" from Midnights
79. "My mother accused me of losing my mind / But I swore I was fine, you paint me a blue sky / And go back and turn it to rain / And I lived in your chess game / But you changed the rules every day / Wondering which version of you I might get on the phone" – "Dear John" from Speak Now
80. "Just between us, did the love affair maim you too?" – "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" from Red (Taylor's Version)
81. "You did a number on me, but honestly, baby, who's counting?" — "So it Goes..." from Reputation
82. "With every guitar string scar on my hand / I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover" – "Lover" from Lover
83. "It was the end of a decade / But the start of an age" – "Long Live" from Speak Now
84. "It's poker, you can't see it in my face, but I'm about to play my ace." — "New Romantics" from 1989
85. "The road not taken looks real good now" – "'Tis the Damn Season" from Evermore
86. "Take the words for what they are: A dwindling, mercurial high / A drug that only worked the first few hundred times" – "Illicit Affairs" from Folklore
87. "But now I'll go / Sit on the floor wearing your clothes / All that I know is I don't know / How to be something you miss" – "Last Kiss" from Red
88. "But I took your matches before fire could catch me / So don't look now, I'm shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town" – "Dear John" from Speak Now
89. "No one wanted to play with me as a little kid / So I've been scheming like a criminal ever since" – "Mastermind" from Midnights
90. "You held your pride like you should have held me" – "The Story of Us" from Speak Now
91. "I made you my temple, my mural, my sky / Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life" – “Tolerate It” from Evermore
92. "I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser" – "Anti-Hero" from Midnights
93. "After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own / Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone" – "All Too Well" from Red
94. "You said it was a great love, one for the ages / But if the story’s over, why am I still writing pages?" – "Death By a Thousand Cuts" from Lover
95. "They told me all of my cages were mental / So I got wasted like all my potential" – "This is Me Trying" from Folklore
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96. "And I was never good at telling jokes, but the punchline goes / I'll get older, but your lovers stay my age" – "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" from Red (Taylor's Version)
97. "And I'm a monster on the hill / Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city / Pierced through the heart, but never killed" – "Anti-Hero" from Midnights
98. "You call me up again just to break me like a promise / So casually cruel in the name of being honest" – "All Too Well" from Red
99. "You booked the night train for a reason / So you could sit there in this hurt" – "Champagne Problems" from Evermore
100. "I have this dream my daughter in-law kills me for the money / She thinks I left them in the will / The family gathers 'round and reads it and then someone screams out / 'She's laughing up at us from hell'" – "Anti-Hero" from Midnights
